


But It's Gone to the Dogs in My Mind

by indevan



Series: Rock Band AU [19]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: After Party, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Drinking, F/F, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-02-02 09:47:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12724254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indevan/pseuds/indevan
Summary: http://vertigoats.tumblr.com





	But It's Gone to the Dogs in My Mind

There’s less restrictions on this tour.  That’s what Caulifla has noticed.  Before, they were monitored at the after parties, making sure that the three of them didn’t touch a drop of alcohol.  Everything felt more regimented, almost like a class trip.  Only in their hotel rooms could they actually let loose.  Now it’s different.  King Kai isn’t with them on every stop and tonight they’re in a college town.

Kids their age are everywhere and she sees a few wearing shirts and pins for their bands.  Mostly Apetail but she sees one girl in a U6 shirt as they’re driving through campus and it makes her excited.  It also makes her wonder if she made the wrong choice in not going to college.  Then again, it wasn’t a choice.  Her brother can’t afford it.  Caulifla will work at the shitty little organic grocery store where she can’t afford to shop until rock’n’roll stardom or she dies.

They also have the luxury of staying in a Days Inn, which is better than the nameless horror movie sets they’ve stayed in so far.

This tour has been great fun, she thinks.  She  _ likes _ Apetail now.  They’re like rowdy, big brothers.  Renso is sixteen years older than her and has always  _ had _ to be a father rather than just her brother so having guys who are only a little older than her looking out for her (and her group) in their own way is different.  The closest, of course, to being a brother is Vegeta.  She’d never tell him that, though.  It’s too embarrassing.

Tonight, the after party is out of control.  Their rooms are packed with people and Caulifla only knows a few of them.  Most are college kids from the nearby university but she spots older people in the crowd as well.  Her vision’s going hazy and, Christ, how much has she had to drink?  Maybe there’s a reason King Kai played chaperone on their last tour.

“Cauli, get over here.”

She follows Vegeta’s rough voice to find him standing next to a kid who’s somehow shorter than him.  They have the same high foreheads and pointed little noses.

“This is Tarble,” he says. “My brother.  He goes to college here.”

Tarble smiles and gives a shy wave of his hand.  He’s told her about his brother and she’s might have seen him once at one of Apetail’s shows but never met him.  She can tell from his demeanor that he’s probably nothing like his brother.

“Hey,” she says and gives a wave back.  She doesn’t trust herself to say much else since she’s already well beyond buzzed.  To Vegeta she says, “Have you seen Kale?”

He makes a gesture towards one of the other rooms rented for the night.

“She and Broly are playing Pokemon or some shit.  You know neither of them party.”

His words are slurred, too, and he’s actually smiling, which is her clue that he’s completely gone.  Caulifla reaches out to squeeze his arm through the denim of his jacket.

“I’m gonna go cuddle my girl.  Don’t wait up.”

She manages to get into the hall and into the other room and she wasn’t aware of how much she’s had to drink until she’s trying to get her key card in the hole and turn the handle at the same time.  Caulifla bursts into the room and she can hear music pounding from next door but it’s comparatively quiet.  Broly and Kale are on one bed, faces schooled into identical looks of determination.

“Link battle,” Kale tells her without looking up.

Caulifla nods and flops on the bed behind her.

“Are you winning?” she asks.

Kale and Broly exchange a look and she knows that she’s said something wrong.  Caulifla’s never had the patience for video games.  She and Cabba would play fighting games in mall arcades but that’s the extent of her gaming.  She reaches her hand up to stroke Kale’s back over the fabric of her shirt.

“You doing alright?”

Kale nods. “Yeah.  Are you drunk?”

“A little,” she admits. “I came to cuddle but you’re busy.”

Kale looks up from her 3DS and gives a small smile.

“You can cuddle me while we play.”

Caulifla gets to a seated position and hugs her from behind.  She looks at her screen and widens her eyes.

“Hey!  Did you name a Pokemon after me?”

Kale looks down and bites her lip. “Yeah.”

“That’s the cutest fucking thing.  I love you.”

She feels Kale stiffen and she sits up straight as well.  Neither of them has said those words yet and there they are, just out there.  Broly looks up from his own device, clued in to the sudden tension as well.  Caulifla nervously licks her lips and retracts her arms.

“Oh, uh.  I think I’ll see how the others are doing.  Go kill the gym or, um, whatever.”

She crawls off of the bed and stumbles out of the room and back into the party.

\--

Tarble has never had the best relationship with his brother.  Even as a kid, he always kind of felt that Vegeta resented him for being born, for taking away his position as only child from him.  It didn’t help that their mom only started getting really bad after he was born.  Maybe he blamed him for that, too, but he’s never asked.

It’s different now.  They’re building a relationship for the first time.  Vegeta actually texts him and gets him free tickets to his shows.  He’s gotten to meet his little nephew and they’ll go out to eat and junk.  Real sibling stuff.  It’s a bit of a shock but he’ll take it.  He isn’t sure what brought on the change in his brother but he thinks it might have something to do with his girlfriend.  He’s  _ never _ seen him so happy.

Right now, though, he’s just drunk.  Tarble is, too.  He’s partying with his rock star brother so of course he’s going to drink.  Before, he’d never get to hang out with Vegeta and his friends.  He’s five years older than him, an insurmountable gulf when they were kids.  Who wanted a twelve-year-old around when they wanted to get drunk and commit petty crimes with their friends?  Kakarrot, at least, was always nice to him.  He watches him now, a burning joint sticking out of his mouth, as he pours liquor from two different bottles at once into Vegeta’s mouth.

Tarble sips on his own drink.  The hard stuff was difficult at first but now he’s warm all over and it feels--nice.  He stumbles over to one of the beds and the hotel room is  _ packed. _  He wonders if Vegeta knows all of these people or if this is just how it is.  Three rooms were booked but this is the one where everyone is crammed, blasting music and drinking and doing whatever else.

“You good?”

His brother’s come back and his gaze is as weirdly intense as always.  Tarble wishes he got the Prince family intimidation but he can’t even keep the campus squirrels away from his french fries.

“Oh, yeah.” He pauses and adds, “I’m drunk.”

“Me too.” He lets out a gruff, harsh laugh. “Some brother I am.  Taking you to parties, getting you drunk…”

Tarble slumps forward, suddenly tired, and rests his head on his shoulder.

“Yeah.  You...you’re the best.”

He takes another sip of his drink and looks up to see someone’s slender arm come around his brother’s other shoulder.

“Heyy,” a girl purrs. “Long time no see.”

Tarble pulls his head back and looks at her.  The girl is unfamiliar but he thinks she looks a bit like Bulma.  Or, rather, looks like her in the sense that she has blue hair and is a girl.  Tarble looks down in his cup, wondering if he should stop drinking.

“Yeah.” Vegeta pulls her arm off of his shoulder. “So long that I’m not interested anymore.”

“Ooh, right.” The girl pulls on his jacket to get it low enough to show his tattoo that boasts both Bulma and Trunks’s names. “Happily ever after for the handsome prince.”

She tosses her head back in laughter and the sound of it makes Tarble cringe.  Vegeta jerks his arm from her grasp and tugs his jacket back on.

“Maron--”

The girl from before is back and she grabs onto him.

“I need you,” she says.

Before anyone can say anything, she’s hauling Vegeta out of the room.  Tarble stares after them, wondering if he should follow or stand here with this Maron girl.

“God,” she says.  She draws her hair over one shoulder and shakes her head. “It’s a shame he’s taken now.  He has an amazing cock and he knows just how to use it.”

Tarble chokes on his drink.

“That’s a fun thing to learn about my brother,” he gets out before his words are swallowed in coughs.

Wanting not to look at her, he looks at the other end of the hotel room where Turles is holding a skinny-hipped boy around the waist.

“You know,” he says, “Turles is single and not related to me.  And allll the way on the other side of the room.”

He ducks away from her just as she casts a speculative gaze towards Turles.  It’s hard to make an escape, though, with the room so packed.  He crashes into someone, nearly spilling his drink in the process.

“Where’s the fire?”

The boy who’s looking at him is smiling and--he was onstage, too, wasn’t he?  Tarble’s mind is too cloudy and, in all honesty, he only paid attention to Apetail’s set.

“Over there,” he says, gesturing back to Maron.

The boy laughs and it’s a nice sound.  Tarble gives his best version of a flirtatious smile and the boy smiles back shyly.

“Do...you wanna hang?” he asks.

Tarble can almost  _ hear _ the innuendo hanging off of it but--when will the chance come again?  He nods and the boy takes his hand and leads him out of the room.

\--

From the next room, Caulifla can hear Nappa kicking everyone out.  The music’s off and dawn is coming soon and she has to  _ calm down. _

“I can’t believe I just blurted it out like that,” she says with an angry sigh. “Kale and I haven’t even  _ discussed _ the l-word.”

Vegeta looks like he’s about to do that thing he does where he rolls his eyes and tells her that he doesn’t care about her problems but still listens to them anyway.  God, she isn’t sure when he became so important in her life and she honestly doesn’t want to think about it too deeply.

“And you just ran out of the room?” he asks, because of course he’s totally listening just like Caulifla listens to his fatalistic tears about dying or somehow losing the family he’s made.

“Well, yeah.  What else do you do?”

She sits up on the bed and leans back on her hands.  It’s too much.  Maybe this  _ tour _ is too much.  Three months is comparatively short but everything seems amplified, accelerated.

“What I’m about to tell you is going to make you hit me,” he says very seriously. “But you should talk to her about it or else you’re going to end up like my Zia Brassica who lives in her house in Sicily and doesn’t talk to anyone.”

Caulifla wonders, briefly, if she stumbled into some kind of alternate reality.

“You fuck!” she cries and smacks Vegeta in the face with a pillow. “You are the last person to say I need to talk about things.”

“I said it’d make you hit me.”

It really doesn’t help that he’s still drunk.  Can’t he see she’s having  _ issues? _

“And who cares about your zilla?”

“Zia.”

She lets out a cry of aggravation and flops back down on the bed.  He scowls at her and--there he is.  Thank God.

“The least you can do is stop complaining to me about it.”

Caulifla makes a face and his scowl deepens.  The door to the hotel room swings open.

“Getaaaa!  I’m looonely.”

Kakarrot’s eyes are unfocused and also bright red.  He stumbles into the room and falls on the bed.  Immediately, he locks his arms around Vegeta and rubs his forehead into his back.

“I miss Chi-Chiiiiii,” he whines.

Vegeta rolls his eyes and reaches back to pat him on the back of the head.  Caulifla isn’t exactly sure of what she’s seeing.

“He gets like this,” he says flatly.

Caulifla has long stopped hating Apetail but it doesn’t mean she’s stopped thinking that they’re all really fucking weird.  The door opens again, which makes sense since the party’s winding down, and Raditz strides in.  He has his phone to his ear.

“Awh, no.  I’m not asleep yet.” He smiles as whoever is on the other line talks to him. “16’s taking care of you?  Good, good.  Okay--yes, I’m going to bed.  You try to get some rest, too, okay?  Feel better...love you, too.”

He hangs up and Caulifla realizes that she’s been staring at him.

“Lapis is sick,” he explains.

She nods, but that’s not what sticks with her.  The easy way the “love you, too” rolled off his tongue.  Why can’t she be like that?

“When did you first say ‘I love you’?” she blurts out.

Vegeta rolls his eyes but there isn’t much he can do with a very stoned Kakarrot wrapped around him like a spider monkey.  Raditz looks caught off guard, his phone still near his ear.

“To Lapis?  I dunno.  It just kinda happened organically, I guess?”

He’s no help.  Caulifla sighs dramatically.  Why is she freaking out about this?  She  _ does _ love Kale, but Kale’s...Kale.  She’s been so vulnerable since her parents disowned her, since she moved into Cabba’s house at the behest of his parents (Caulifla had begged Renso, but he could barely support the two of them, let alone a third person).  Hearing it out of the blue will probably rattle her.  In many ways, Kale is like a frightened deer Caulifla’s constantly worried about scaring.  She wants her to see her potential as an amazing bassist and singer and  _ person, _ to see the person she’s fallen in love with.

But now she’s worried that she’s freaked her out.

Or maybe Kale doesn’t love her back.

Neither option is good and no one is  _ helping _ her because they’re asshole drunk boys.  And aren’t they older?  Shouldn’t they be more mature?

“Go to sleep,” Kakarrot says.  She sees that he’s vibrating in that way he normally does, which is at odds with the fact that he’s on the verge of tears.  She has the distinct feeling that he is very not okay.

Raditz jerks a thumb to the other bed.

“Yeah, I’m not fitting so I’m gonna sleep here.”

They’re carrying on like she isn’t there and maybe it’s selfish to want them to pay attention to her.  Cabba always does--and where is he, anyway?  Knowing him, he’s probably helping Nappa and the others clean up from the party.  Perfect little boy scout.

Caulifla hears the beep of a keycard in the lock and the door opens to reveal Kale.  She looks lost and slightly confused like she doesn’t know why she’s there but then her eyes land on the bed and narrow slightly.  Caulifla cringes.  It has to be her, right?  She’s freaked out by it--which is the only thing that can drag her from a Pokemon session with Broly.  She extracts herself from Vegeta’s arms and squares her shoulders.  She’s sobered up a little so it’s now or never.

“Let’s go in the bathroom to talk,” she says before Kale can say anything.

Kale looks at her for a moment and her slit-eyed look fades away and she nods.  The bathroom smells like weed because this room is where Apetail is supposed to sleep.  Before the show, she had come in looking for them only to find four of them in the bathroom with the shower running while Broly sat on the bed playing a rhythm game on his phone.  Caulifla tries not to breathe in too deeply as she sits on the toilet lid--she wants as clear of a head as she can have during this conversation.

“So, uh, about earlier…” she starts.

“It’s okay,” Kale replies. “I know you didn’t really mean it.”

Her voice is quiet, resigned, and there’s that look from before.  The slight glare.  Caulifla stands up from the toilet.

“What?  I totally did.”

Kale draws her arms in towards herself and looks down, dejected.

“But then you immediately ran off and I found you in bed with.  Him.”

She bites her lip and her dark eyebrows go down.  Caulifla cocks her head to the side.  Him?

“You mean Vegeta?  So what?  Dude’s like my brother.” She pauses and adds, “Don’t tell him I said that.”

Kale doesn’t seem to see the humor in it.  Everything about her body language is screaming “upset” and Caulifla hates that she’s the one who caused it, even if it’s for an unfounded reason.

“Kale,” she says, “I’m a lesbian and Vegeta’s basically married.  Like, there’s  _ nothing there. _  And besides, you’re one to talk.”

She looks up sharply, the sudden motion making her ponytail bop all over her head in a way that Caulifla normally finds cute.

“What do you mean?”

“You and Broly,” she says, “you’re attached at the hip...or, rather, his hip and your, like, upper arm, I guess?”

Kale gives a soft laugh and then bites her lip, her brow drawing in again.

“Sorry,” she murmurs. “I shouldn’t be jealous.  It’s Cabba all over again.”

She remembers that well.  When she first met Kale, really met her, she thought there was something going on between her and Cabba.  Caulifla takes a breath and pushes the memory away.  She has to get back to the topic at hand.

“What does that have to do with my, uh, confession?”

“I dunno.  Um, you just, ran off but.  You said you meant it?”

Oh, right.  She did.  Caulifla nods cautiously, ready to see where this goes.  Kale gives a soft but warm smile.

“I love you, too,” she says quietly.

_ Oh. _

She doesn’t know what to say so she kisses her and.  That’s that, she figures.  Much easier than the messes she’s heard the others embroil themselves in and, okay, they have to talk about the weird, jealousy thing but all things considered, it’s not bad.

“Let’s go to bed.”

She takes her hand and they leave the bathroom and the room.  The middle room is empty now and she gently lowers Kale on one of the beds.  She reaches up and winds her arms around her neck as she kisses her.

“Um...can you say it again?” she asks.

Caulifla nods and grins.

“I love you, Kale.”

\--

Broly’s startled when the door opens.  Turles careens in the room, his arms around a boy with a girl holding him from behind so she can kiss his neck.  Their legs are tangled and everyone’s laughing--a sound that’s harsh to his ears.

Broly closes his 3DS and waits for them to notice him.  Turles is letting the boy take his shirt off and the girl tosses her blue hair over one shoulder as she presses her breasts against Turles’s back.  They fall on the bed in a jumble of limbs and clothes and hair and  _ laughter _ and Broly has to leave.  He hates that he’s developed feelings for Turles, someone who will never return them.  Someone who would never want a boring, untouched loser like him.  At least when he was in love with Raditz, he didn’t have to see him getting it on with someone different every night.

No one’s noticed him and it hurts him more than he’s willing to admit.

The girl--and he thinks he recognizes her as that Maron girl who’s been following them on tour--straddles Turles after laying him flat on the bed.  She has her dress around her neck and her bra off.  Broly looks away as she fondles her breasts.  The boy with them laughs, keeps laughing.

He gets off of the bed and leaves.  For at least ten reasons, he can’t stay in here.  He skips the middle room and goes to the room that’s technically designated as theirs.  He lets himself in and stares at the beds.  Raditz is curled up in one, his hair all over the bed and his phone loosely in his hand.  He’s half out of his jeans like he was getting undressed but exhaustion took over.  Kakarrot’s wrapped around Vegeta, his head on his shoulder.  Drool leaks out of his mouth as he sleeps like the dead.

“I’m surprised you’re letting him do that,” Broly says flatly.

Vegeta doesn’t look up from his phone when he says, “You wanna try moving him?”

He has a fair point.  Broly fusses with his suitcase to find a suitable pair of pajama pants and he flops into bed next behind Kakarrot since their bed seems to offer the most room for him.  Broly closes his eyes but all he can see is flashes of what he just walked out of.  Turles.  That girl, Maron.  Some nameless, faceless boy.  He sees a flicker of himself straddling him, looking down at Turles as he smirks up at him, hands on his backside.

Broly squeezes his eyes shut and prays for sleep.

\--

Cabba walks down to the lobby with a spring in his step.  He can’t  _ believe it. _  He’s finally  _ done it. _  He, Cabba Sadala, is no longer a virgin.  He knows that alcohol helped his courage but he still can’t believe it.  A cute guy  _ his age _ happened to be at the after party and wanted to hang out.  Everything happened organically as well.  Cabba didn’t feel horrifically self-conscious or nervous and the guy seemed to know what he was doing.

He feels--good.  He showed Caulifla, too, who tells him that he’s “hung up” on his crush on Vegeta and he needs to move on.  He can’t wait to tell her that he’s had sex and it was  _ good _ and he has the guy’s  _ number. _  He doesn’t even mind the slightly nauseated hangover feeling he has because he feels totally great.

Cabba pushes open the double doors to enter the main lobby in time to see the others are already gathered there.  He looks around for Caulifla in hopes of being able to tell her just to see the look on her face, but before he does, he spots someone familiar.  The guy from last night, Tarble, is in the lobby, which is weird considering that he went home when they were done.  He’s standing next to Vegeta and that’s even weirder.

Cabba slows his steps as he approaches and, as he does, he starts seeing some similarities between Tarble and his longtime crush.  They have the same high foreheads and pointed, slightly upturned noses.  They even stand the same way, even though Tarble’s posture is slightly slumped.  Cabba approaches him nervously.

“H-hey,” he says. “Good morning.”

They turn to look at him in unison and Cabba tries to stop both the impending wave of nausea and the conclusions he’s jumping to.  Vegeta makes a grunting noise and puts his arm around Tarble.

“I don’t know if you met him last night, but this is my brother, Tarble.”

Tarble smiles and in that cute, shy voice that won Cabba over last night he says, “We’ve met.”

He can’t stop it now and, for the second time in his idol’s presence, he vomits all over the floor.

**Author's Note:**

> http://vertigoats.tumblr.com


End file.
